I was doing some reading on guns and ammunition so to come across the Wikipedia page for the movie Lord of War was inevitable. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie.

Then, in the production section of the Wikipedia page, I discovered that the makers opted to buy 3,000 real Kalashnikov automatic rifles because props were more expensive than the real thing at the film location:

New Zealand director Andrew Niccol bought 3000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles for his latest movie, Lord of War, because it was cheaper than using props.

“In a way, my film is a how-to about becoming an arms dealer,” Niccol told the New York Daily News.“During the making of it, I needed guns in the Czech Republic, and it was cheaper to use real guns than replicas. I bought 3000 Kalashnikovs and then sold them back at a loss.

“We also got some tanks, and the guy said,‘I need them back by December because I’m selling them to Libya’.”